PHILADELPHIA -- Kyle Kendrick wanted to pitch Friday, and not just for five-plus innings, but for longer. He wanted to, he said he wanted to, and he didn't care that there were cameras and recorders and note-scribblers there when he said he wanted to.

"He can say what he wants to," Charlie Manuel said, the day after, with an harrumph. "I'll say to him what I want to. I won't say to you what I am going to tell him, though. Seriously, that's kind of how I look at it. I don't care what he says. Not really. But if I have something to say to him, I will definitely do that. You won't know it, though, unless he tells you."

Kendrick was clear that he wasn't challenging Manuel's authority, cushioning his comment with the advisory that he is a competitor, and that competitors never want to leave games. In other situations, that's probably where it would have remained. But in a year when the manager is on the final paragraph of his contract, every syllable in the clubhouse can be considered an in-house challenge.

The Phillies were 1-3 as they reported for their second home game of the season against the Kansas City Royals, but they might have been 2-2 had the bullpen not collapsed Friday, which is what had Kendrick frustrated. Yet that's how it was on opening day, when stress ruled. Manuel questioned Domonic Brown's defensive judgment on a ball. Kendrick questioned Manuel's hook. Ryan Howard questioned everything.

"When we get out to a lead, we have to be able to finish teams off," Howard said. "We can't let off the gas. I don't want to say that we let off the gas. I think those guys came back swinging. And sometimes that happens in baseball. We just got beat today."

They either let off the gas or they stomped on the brake, one or the other, and that's why Howard reacted the way he did, but not before first calling the assembled press a "circus." And even if that was said in a clubhouse-needling sort of way, the circus will continue this season if the Phillies don't play better than .400 baseball and if any more players scratch at the manager's decisions.

But there was a confrontational look in Manuel's eyes when he hinted that he would sting Kendrick with some talking points. He's a players' manager, but not so much a players' manager that he will long tolerate No. 4 starters questioning him on camera. So when he made every right move in a 4-3 victory Saturday, from starting John Lannan to finishing with pinch-hitter Kevin Frandsen, he also made it clear: Even though he has one fewer remaining year on his deal than he has world championships, he will not be bullied in the clubhouse.

Technically, there is no business harm in allowing a contract to drain down. Yet there is the risk that players will be quicker to grumble during the final days of an administration.

Manuel started Lannan Saturday, he of the career record 10 games south of .500, even with franchise showpiece Cole Hamels fully rested. If nothing else, it was one more chance to ask why.

"When we set up our rotation, we wanted to get the guy out there," Manuel said. "We wanted to go through our organization and get it organized. We have three off-days this month, and we felt like to get our rotation out there as soon as possible is good. The quicker it gets out there, the quicker we can get involved in it. That's our thinking."

That was his choice and he didn't care who disagreed. And Lannan looked more like Hamels than Hamels had looked like Hamels in the opener in Atlanta, giving the Phils enough early to enable a rally late.

Manuel insists that he will not discuss his contract situation -- a reasonable and necessary approach. He has to think baseball, not banking. His challenge is to make sure the players don't take that as a signal that the end is near.

One day after that's how it seemed, the manager responded. Not coincidentally, his team did, too.